On Tuesday I traveled to an unfamiliar area of Tokyo known as Kōjimachi in order to attend a hiring event for the company Capcom. For those unfamiliar, Capcom is one of several world-famous Japanese software companies that produce games for home consoles, portable systems, arcades, cell phones, pachinko machines, etc. The company has many incredible series to its name, including Street Fighter, Resident Evil, and Mega Man. If you love videogames, chances are you love Capcom too!

The event was held on the fifth floor of the City Center Hotel. After verifying that I was in the right place (you never know in Japan), I rode the elevator to the fifth floor and sat in the lobby. Aside from a young man I saw scribbling fiercely into a sketchbook the size of his chest, the lobby was devoid of activity.

When the clock struck 1 PM on the nose, a short Japanese woman wearing a ring on every possible finger opened the doors to a large seminar room and let us inside. It was time to begin.

With precision that can only be described as uniquely Japanese, we were all instructed to file into our respective seats as quickly as possible without unnecessary verbal utterances. The seating was arranged in five columns, with each column being composed of a series of three-person occupancy rectangular tables. The right three columns of tables were the designated seating area for the game designers. The next column was the designated seating for the game programmers, and the leftmost column was for us: the musicians.

Since I was the first “composer” to enter the room, I filed into the first table, leftmost seat; two young Japanese men quickly took the spaces next to me rounding out our bunch. Looking at their emotionless glum faces, perhaps now wasn’t a good time for us to think up our table group cheer and synchronized hand gestures?

In total, I would say there were approximately 150 bodies present, including myself, the singular white person in the room. As the seating suggested, prospective game designers made up the majority of the group (around 100 people). I counted around 30 potential musicians and slightly fewer programmers. Given that Capcom hosts several of these events at locations around Japan, I was given a good idea for just how desired creative jobs like this really are.

Next, “excessive rings” lady took the stage upfront and instructed us to look at the documents on the table. Placed in front of us was a glossy information book about Capcom with pictures of the awesome games they make, as well as a company questionnaire that asked basic questions, such as your desired position in the company, your favorite videogame, and the make and model of your personal computer.

Excessive rings lady then introduced Mizuguchi-san, and with that, the information section of the event was underway. Mizuguchi-san looked to be in his mid thirties with unkempt hair and faded blue jeans. He joked that his last name has “mizu” in it (the Japanese word for water) because he loves water.

(Pause for laughter) – The room is dead silent.

Visibly shaken by the poor reception of his joke, he took the opportunity to feebly point to his button-up shirt design which displayed Felix the Cat riding around on different water vessels. Hey, I guess the guy really does like water! It was too late for me to start laughing though, that moment had passed.

Mizuguchi-san started his presentation with an observation. In truth, I had made this same observation while entering the room – nearly everyone was wearing a full business suit! I, on the other hand, was wearing slacks and a stripped shirt.

When I first arrived, I assumed that all the suit clad Japanese youth were in the hotel for a different event since our instructions had clearly stated that we were to all wear casual clothes. Evidently Mizuguchi-san and I were the only ones who got the memo.

Thus, one thing I learned is that the term “casual dress” for Japanese job seekers most directly translates into a full suit, tie, dress shoes, gloves, tails, opera glasses, and horse drawn carriage. Mizuguchi-san stated that all the suit-clad kids must be quite hot. He instructed everyone to remove their neckties and relax.

(Pause for action) – The room is dead silent, no one moves a muscle. All eyes remain fixed forward.

“Er…well then, moving on” was his next utterance. I had to fight back laughter. With the formalities out of the way, Mizuguchi-san gave a rundown of each section (designer / programmer / sound) and what each type of employee usually does. I was quite pleased to find that I understood everything being said.

Some of the nuggets I learned were that most console games have increasingly long development cycles of 1.5 to 2 years, and that teams are assembled for each game. That is, one will work with the same team on the same project until completion and doesn’t have the ability to migrate or switch to a new project in the middle.

Mizuguchi-san also said that all game ideas are generated from staff members. Then, pending approval (and a host of other concerns), teams are assembled and the games are developed. The take home point was that anyone in the company (according to him) can suggest game ideas and have a role in the larger creative process. This bodes well for the creation of Ben Whaley’s Hallway Runner.

At the conclusion of his informational briefing, Mizuguchi-san and excessive rings lady began distributing our written tests. This produced glum faces from my seat neighbors who now started to look more and more like they were in front of a firing squad. Maybe now was the time for our group cheer? No…not yet!

The event materials had described this as a “test relating to music items.” In truth this was a fairly accurate description. The test consisted of 20 or so multiple choice questions followed by a few short answer essays.

The multiple choice section was hit and miss, not so much because of the fact that it was all in Japanese (I understood what they were asking), but because I just didn’t know some of the answers. I was able to successfully identify the components that make up music and sound. I also knew what the abbreviation MIDI meant! By contrast, when I got to the few questions that dealt with converting audio sources and file name extensions, I had no choice but to guess. Wikipedia says I guessed right on at least one!

I think a basic digital music or recording course in college would have taught me all the answers, since I got the feeling that the concepts were all fairly elementary. Alas, I took no such course, so I did the best with the knowledge I had.

There were three short answer questions. The first asked you to write what you thought was a good use of music in a game and why. I chose the game Shadow of the Colossus (PS2), because, while there isn’t a ton of music in the game, when the soundtrack does chime in, it’s very memorable and emotional.

The next question was to write about a game or film score that you were particularly impressed by and why. I chose to gush about Nintendo scores for their memorable melodies (probably a fairly stock answer I bet).

The final question gave us this scenario where we were on a spaceship with a few others and could never return to earth. We were asked what we would bring and what mental preparations we would make.

I wrote that I would say goodbye to my family and loved ones and that I would name stars after them so they would be with me even in space. I used some incredibly sappy phrase like, “And as I see the stars whizzing by, I will remember you…always.” For the second part, I said I’d bring a guitar or some sort of instrument, so the people onboard and I could make music on the way over. I felt like I needed to tie it back to music somehow!

Whenever I’m put in timed situations like this and forced to be artistic and creative in Japanese, I always default to sappy anime sentimentality. But hey, I dare you to think of something more poignant with 10 minutes left on the clock while struggling to remember kanji radicals! How I longed for my electronic dictionary…you have NO idea!

In summary, were I Japanese, I would rate my grade on the test a C / C+. However, being a Gaijin I would give myself an A- overall. Since I’m sure I will be graded as if I were a Japanese person though, I will likely get the C/ C+ in the eyes of the HR manager. It doesn’t matter…I felt that it was a very valuable experience regardless of the result.

With my test, resume, and questionnaire submitted, there was only one thing left to do…

TABLE GROUP CHEER!!!

I was the only one who participated.

B.E.W.